W.K. Kellogg Foundation announces four vice presidents, two directors to leadership posts

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Nov. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) announces the selection of four vice presidents and two directors. These leaders will make significant contributions to the foundation's programming, strategic operations, investments and evaluation functions and its effectiveness as a grantmaker and community partner committed to ensuring all children have opportunities to succeed in school, work and life.

"It is exciting to welcome Joe and Carmen as new talent to the foundation and also promote four long-term WKKF team members with more than 66 years of exceptional experience among them into new roles," said WKKF President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron. "As a foundation, we are placing even more emphasis on integrating our work and achieving results aligned with our mission and goals. Each of these leaders brings significant passion, knowledge and skills to the foundation and we are confident our partners and the vulnerable children and families we care about will be greatly served."

Vice President for Program Strategy (places)
Joseph (Joe) Scantlebury has been named vice president for program strategy for the foundation's place-based work. He will lead, design and implement strategic programming efforts to improve the lives of vulnerable children and families in the foundation's priority places, including: Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans in the United States, and internationally in Haiti and Mexico. Scantlebury will join the foundation on Jan. 5, 2015, and report to Chief Strategy Officer Dr. Barbara Ferrer.

Scantlebury is currently a senior program officer, U.S. Program Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Washington, D.C. In this role, he leads state policy advocacy within a subset of priority northeast and mid-south states, as well as leads the foundation's civil rights and equity work. Prior to the Gates Foundation, he was a staff attorney at the Youth Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he advocated and litigated nationally to reduce disproportionate minority confinement and addressed conditions within the juvenile justice system. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and is currently pursuing his Master of Public Administration from New York University Wagner School of Public Service.

Vice President for Talent and Human Resources
Dianna Langenburg has been named vice president for talent and human resources, effective Nov. 1, 2014. In this role, she will provide strategic leadership of the foundation's efforts to develop and recruit talent and create an environment in which staff are engaged and valued.

Langenburg joined the foundation in 1993 and has been the director of human resources and organizational services since 2012. Prior to that, she held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility, including assistant to the director of human resources and administrative services, human resources analyst, human resources manager and deputy director of human resources. She holds a master's degree in industrial and organizational psychology and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Western Michigan University. She is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the Human Resources Certification Institute. She is also a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) through the World at Work Society of Certified Professionals. She is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management and the American Society of Training and Development.

Vice President for Integrated Services
Cindy Smith has been named vice president for integrated services, effective Nov. 1, 2014. In this role, she will provide executive leadership for the foundation's Grant Services (tax eligibility, program-related investments, grant commitments and appropriation recommendations and matching gifts program), Contract Services, Meeting & Travel Services, Organizational Budgeting and Organizational Services (facilities, food services, guest services, mail/copy services and records and archives).

Smith was most recently the foundation's director of program services. She joined the foundation in 1993 and has held several roles during her tenure, including: senior budget analyst, finance manager – organizational budgeting and associate controller. She holds a Master of Business Administration degree in management from Western Michigan University and a bachelor's degree in accounting from Nazareth College. She is a member of America's SAP Users Group and the Grants Managers Network.

Vice President for Quality and Organizational Effectiveness
Dr. Alandra Washington has been named vice president for quality and organizational effectiveness, effective Nov. 1, 2014. She is responsible for the overall strategic coordination and integration of the foundation's programming and operations efforts, including advancing the development, implementation and oversight of business process reengineering, quality improvement and organizational performance initiatives. 

Washington most recently was the director or quality and organizational effectiveness. She joined the foundation in 2002 as a program director for Philanthropy & Volunteerism and held other programming positions including: deputy director of Education & Learning (E&L) and Family Economic Security (FES) programs, interim vice president for program strategy for E&L and FES; and director of FES. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Western Michigan University, a Master of Public Administration and a bachelor's of science in business administration – both from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in Edwardsville, Illinois. She was the inaugural recipient of the Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy's (APIP) 2012 Banyan Tree Award for her extensive work and support of community philanthropy initiatives across the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. She also received the Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt certification from Purdue University.

Langenburg, Smith and Washington will report to Chief Operating Officer Linh Nguyen.

Director of Investments
Carmen Heredia-Lopez has been selected as the foundation's director of investments, reporting to Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Joel Wittenberg, effective Dec. 1, 2014. In this role, her primary responsibility will be for the investments of the foundation's portfolio, which includes driving the further development of the foundation's mission-driven investment (MDI) strategy and managing emerging diversity-owned firm work and diversified assets.

Heredia-Lopez is currently the chief investment officer at the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund, where she leads the investment team and has designed and managed a $10 billion investment program. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Georgetown University and an international Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a concentration in finance, accounting and business economics. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in Illinois.

Director of Evaluation
Dr. Huilan Krenn was named director of evaluation for the foundation, effective Sept. 1, 2014, reporting to Nguyen. She is responsible for leading and managing evaluation-related activities in support of all WKKF programming areas and helping the organization measure and understand the outcomes, impacts and lessons learned from its work.

Krenn joined the foundation in August 2002 as an evaluation manager providing leadership and technical assistance to grantmaking efforts in the area of impact assessment and program evaluation. Most recently, she was a program officer for Education & Learning. Prior to the foundation, Krenn was director of evaluation and research with a large child welfare agency, Starr Commonwealth, where she held the positions of director of research, assistant director of evaluation and research, research associate and program evaluator. She was also an adjunct faculty member at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich., for six years. She holds a doctoral degree in evaluation, research and measurement and a master's degree in educational leadership from Western Michigan University. She also holds a master's degree in teaching English as a second language, and a bachelor's degree in English and American language and literature from Nankai University in China.

About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. 

SOURCE W.K. Kellogg Foundation